There were quite a few reasons I wanted to make a salmon burger. One of them, of course was how easily salmon pairs with other flavors. Making it a great choice for a burger.

But the other is, at least on the west coast; wild salmon is at its peak right now. The Hollywood Farmers Market has beautiful wild sockeye salmon. Because it is in season it is not all that expensive, and it’s truly spectacular.

So I have chosen Canadian wild caught sockeye salmon to be this weeks Market Matters post. And I am giving this burger the honor of closing out burger week at SippitySup. Ahhhh… that’s right. It’s over. Sad but true. Just how many more burgers can you expect me to eat?

This is the first burger we have done where you will need to grind the meat.

It is a very simple process if you have a food processor.

The key to getting a nice texture to this burger lies in grinding the meat in 2 stages so I will start there.

Start by cutting all the (skinless) salmon into 1-inch chunks. Then divide the fish in half. Add half of the cut salmon to the bowl of a food processor, along with the mustard. Turn the machine on, and process the fish, scraping down the sides once or twice as needed, until the mixture becomes pureed and paste like.

The purpose of this pasty fish mixture is to act as a binder. This way you can leave the rest of the fish fairly coarsely chopped. When it gets cooked the coarser fish will stay a bit more rare and moist, but the “burger” will bind together.

Once you have a pasty mixture that seems like a good consistency to act as this binder add the remaining salmon, as well as the diced onions. Pulse the machine in quick on and off bursts until the fish is coarsely chopped and well combined with the puree. Try and get each chunk of coarse fish to be about 1/4 inch. Be careful not to chop the mixture to finely because you will get a dense burger that will easily overcook.

The process of preparing and grinding the fish was adapted from Mark Bittman and he says that “the two-step grinding process means that those flavorings that you want minced fine, like garlic or ginger, can go in with the first batch of salmon; those that should be left coarse, like onion or fresh herbs, can go in with the rest.”

Scrape the fish mixture into a bowl and using a wooden spoon, mix in the breadcrumbs, thyme, chopped capers with some salt and pepper.

Shape the mixture into four equal sized burgers. They should be refrigerated at least an hour and up to 24 hours.

Heat a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and oil. Once the butter has melted, add the lemon slices and cook the a few minutes. Then add the burger to the same pan with the lemon slices and brown them 2-3 minutes on each side. When the lemon slices get soft and slightly browned on both sides remove them to a paper towel lined plate.

The finely chopped binder in the burgers will cook through holding the coarser (less cooked) pieces in suspension making for a very nice texture.

According to Mark Bittman: “Alternatively, you can grill them: let them firm up on the first side, grilling about 4 minutes, before turning over and finishing for just another minute or two.”

Serve the burgers on a soft hamburger bun, with a lettuce leaf, a few of the fried lemon slices and a dash (or two) of the hot sauce.

12 Responses to Market Matters: A Salmon Burger Swan Song

I will love burgers, especially the ones made at home. (But, In N Out is still my favorite drive through). I found the recipe and made them at home once for a bunch of girls who never experienced them. Can’t wait to see how this week goes…

I will love burgers, especially the ones made at home. (But, In N Out is still my favorite drive through). I found the recipe and made them at home once for a bunch of girls who never experienced them. Can’t wait to see how this week goes

Burgers galore! We tried the ‘lean meat’ route with our burgers one time and it came out dry as styrofoam – there’s a lot to be said about good old FAT. We have a great local source for bison meat – Eichten’s – and now you’ve got me craving!

In my (hopefully) upcoming post, I made a brief mention about what hamburgers represent to my mom who was an exchange student to the US 50 years ago but you hit it right on the head when you wrote ‘it says something about being an American’.

It’s raining right now so my craving is thwarted for the time being. Can’t wait for the continuation of burger week!

I watched an episode of Barefoot Contessa yesterday, and she served a grilled burger on an English muffin. So, when I saw your photo, I immediately wondered if that was indeed an English muffin, and yes! Sounds great! Can’t wait to see the rest of the week’s burgers.

I know there are some bad ones out there, but the good far outnumber the bad in my opinion. In and Out was a revelation for me, and I am convinced they need their own category on the food pyramid – in fact when loaded they about make up the pyramid.

I made bison burgers not too long ago and they turned out fantastic. I added a bit of bacon to mine to get a bit of fat back in, was that unforgivable?

I agree with making your own burger. Everyone’s tastes are so different that we all can’t agree on the best one. Though, I do enjoy all that you’ve listed except for BK. I never really got into them. I was more of a McD’s over BK. And an In-n-Out kind of a gal.